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The Vancouver Aquarium has obtained species globally listed as “vulnerable and near-threatened” for its new special exhibit entitled The Secret World of Sharks and Rays.

But aquarium spokeswoman Linda Nishida stressed that the fish come from managed populations and are not subject to international trade bans.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature — “the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization” — rates species on a “red list” according to the level at which they are at risk.

The rankings, in order from least to most at risk, are: least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, and extinct in the wild. Some species with insufficient study are rated as not evaluated or data deficient.

The aquarium brought in the following new species for its exhibit: zebra shark, rated as vulnerable by the IUCN; tasselled wobbegong, near threatened; blue-spotted fantail ray, near threatened; epaulette shark, least concern.

Of the wobbegong, the IUCN states the near-threatened assessment is “due to suspected significant population declines having occurred and predicted to continue within a large proportion of its range.”

The whipray is another creature that has been brought in for the special exhibit, however scientists need to do more taxonomic work before they can identify it as separate from closely related species, Nishida said.

She added that “all of our shark and ray species come from managed populations and none originated from IUCN’s habitats of concern” or are listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

“The suppliers we work with ensure that the animals are coming from managed populations,” she said.

Among the shark and ray species the aquarium already had in its collection before its new exhibit: blacktip reef shark, near threatened; whitespotted bamboo shark, near threatened; ocellated freshwater stingray, data deficient; tiger stingray, data deficient; Xingu River rays, data deficient; spotted ratfish, least concern; and Pacific spiny dogfish, vulnerable.

“Several of our species, such as the whitespotted bamboo sharks and our juvenile freshwater rays, were bred at public aquariums, including ours,” Nishida said.

In 2011, B.C.’s spiny dogfish become the first shark fishery in the world to be deemed sustainable, helping to open doors to foreign markets and offering a glimmer of hope for globally overfished shark populations.

The Marine Stewardship Council, based in London, England, concluded that B.C.’s commercial hook-and-line dogfish fishery is sustainable following an independent scientific assessment by the accredited certification body Moody Marine Ltd.

The decline in shark populations, mainly to supply the shark-fin soup trade, has become a global conservation issues in recent years.

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